Quotes for A Monday in Late July

Roman ruins with a prophet, by Giovanni Pannini, 1751.

Thus it is that no cruelty whatsoever passes by without impact. Thus it is that we always pay dearly for chasing after what is cheap. - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956

“(G)rievance culture” — the kind of culture we have today — is deadly. There’s always another oppressor to expose and accuse. Grievance feels good in an ugly sort of way. And it’s addictive. It presumes the wickedness of anyone who disagrees. It kills reasoned discourse. After all, who wants to waste time listening to stupid or evil people — especially if, by definition, they’re stupid or evil because their views conflict with our own? This explains why our nation’s political life is now so toxic. It’s senseless for our leaders to blather on about the “common good” when, by their words and actions, they make a genuine common good impossible. - Francis X. Maier

Preservation of one's own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures. - Cesar Chavez

Whoever controls the media, the images, controls the culture. - Allen Ginsberg

When you encounter difficulties and contradictions, do not try to break them, but bend them with gentleness and time. - Saint Francis de Sales

And if any one would sue you and take your coat, let him have your cloak as well; and if any one forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. - Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew 5:40-41

Mercy without justice is the mother of dissolution; justice without mercy is cruelty. - Saint Thomas Aquinas

When one loves, one does not calculate. - St. Thérèse de Lisieux

The work of renewing the soul of the world is God’s, but his instrument is the Church. And the work of renewing the Church is also God’s, but he accomplishes it through us. The Church, however our various traditions might conceive and experience her, is only as pure and strong as the faith, zeal, courage, and fidelity of her people. We need to remember who we are as a people, and why we’re here—and then conform our lives to the task. - Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M.